[Martinrulz]

Last night I installed Nortons Systemworks 2006 on my Windows 2000 Pro computer. When Nortons installed it said it could not install GoBack due to a partitioned hard drive. It then did the quick virus scan and then installed. After it installed it said it needed to restart the computer. I clicked ok and have been in pain ever since. The computer was taking forever to restart, so I went ahead and hit the reset button on the tower. When the computer restarted, it stalls at the 'Starting up...' screen. I am praying that there is hope before reformatting. I have to much unsaved data to loose.
The only reason I can think of for it saying the hard drive is partitioned is due to an attempt to reformat the computer a couple months back. It was a failed attempt but now I normally must choose between 2000 and 2000 setup. The reason it failed is when I got a new DVD burner and installed the system woouldn't boot off that drive.
My computer has a 1G processor, 786M of memory, and a 30G hard drive.
Can somebody help me out there?

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I quit using Norton products years ago. They just cause to many problems....

As far as backing up your files: do you have another desktop, laptop or a friend who owns a laptop? If you own another desktop you could install this hardrive as a slave on the other system and hopefully copy your files to a flashdrive or cd-r or the 'good' hardrive.

If you own a laptop or know a friend who does, you could install this hardrive in an external hardrive box which is connected by usb to the laptop. It will (hopefully) show up as a local drive to the laptop and you can copy your files to the laptop or a flashdrive or cd-r.

If the above is a no go, I would try booting into Recovery Console from the Operating System cd. If I recall...using DOS commands you might be able to switch directories and copy those files to a flashdrive or such.

If all of the above is a no go, post back here and we'll have some more suggestions.....

[macten]

I quit using Norton products years ago. They just cause to many problems....

As far as backing up your files: do you have another desktop, laptop or a friend who owns a laptop? If you own another desktop you could install this hardrive as a slave on the other system and hopefully copy your files to a flashdrive or cd-r or the 'good' hardrive.

If you own a laptop or know a friend who does, you could install this hardrive in an external hardrive box which is connected by usb to the laptop. It will (hopefully) show up as a local drive to the laptop and you can copy your files to the laptop or a flashdrive or cd-r.

If the above is a no go, I would try booting into Recovery Console from the Operating System cd. If I recall...using DOS commands you might be able to switch directories and copy those files to a flashdrive or such.

If all of the above is a no go, post back here and we'll have some more suggestions.....

[Martinrulz]

Those options are nogos. I just tried running my Windows Setup Discs and then the computer said it could not find my CD-ROM. Now my DVD Burner is in my IDE Primary slot. Why would Windows not be able to find my CD-ROM?

[macten]

I would remove that cd-rom drive cable and re-install it and make sure the drive has power. Will the drive open if you press the button?

Is the BIOS set to boot from the cd-rom drive?

[Martinrulz]

The DVD burner has power and I've used it recently to brun discs. My bios is set up to boot off the floppy, then the cdrom, and then the hard drive.

[macten]

That dvd drive...is it a combination cd/dvd drive? If so can you boot from it?

[Martinrulz]

It is a CDRW & DVDRW. I have not been able to load Windows thru it. Before the Norton crash, I was able to burn cds & dvds. I was also to watch movies listen to CD's. Pretty everything but booting Windows from it. I'm at the point where I just want to reformat my CPU, but Windows won't recognize the dang drive.

[Martinrulz]

MY computer is sitting with the bios open now. Just point me in a good direction.

[macten]

cd-rom drives are pretty flakey. I always carry a fairly new drive with me. Some drives will not load certain disks, yet will load other software. Sometimes, I'll pull the side cover off, stack up some books, put my drive on the books and then switch the cables from his drive to mine and load software that way.

And there could be something wrong with the disk itself. You might try cleaning it.

If the bios is set to boot from that cd-rom drive, I would think that there is something wrong with either the drive or the disk. I would definately reseat the drive cable. It's possible that the cable is defective but that's pretty rare.....

[macten]

OK....I was typing while you posted that. I'll boot up my laptop and walk you through it. Hang on...

[Martinrulz]

Ready when you are.

[macten]

My laptop bios is going to be different from what you got.

On the main screen, it may be the second one down. Should be 'advanced' something. Just highlight it and hit enter. Look for a 'boot' option. I would set the cd-rom drive as the first boot option. My dvd burner is something like LSxxx. So make sure the first boot device is 'cd-rom'. Press f10 to save it and it should attempt to boot from the cd-rom drive.....

[Martinrulz]

I tried setting the first boot as the cdrom & LS120. Neither worked. It went straight to the starting up screen.

[macten]

Have you tried booting into safe mode? Reboot the pc and press f8 every second or two and a menu should pop up...maybe. Worth a try anyway.....

[Martinrulz]

Just attempted that to no avail. The screen with 'Starting Windows...' came up after puttin it in safe mode and the little line traveled across the screen. Now it is sitting there with a solid white line in the same window.